Caste of household members will be enumerated in the upcoming Census, and this is the first time the enumeration of caste will take place...

India Census 2027 News: Phase one of the Census of India 2027, also known as Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO), will be conducted between 1 April 2026 and 30 September 2026 across all States and Union Territories, during a 30-day period decided by each State and UT, Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (RGCCI), Ministry of Home Affairs said in a notification. 

A self-enumeration option will be available for a period of 15 days before house-to-house houselisting starts, as per the date decided by each state and UT. 

“Notification for the Phase I of Census of India 2027, i.e., Houselisting & Housing Census (HLO) has been issued. Houselisting operations will be conducted between 1 April 2026 and 30 September 2026 across all States and Union Territories, during a 30-day period specified by each State/UT. Provision for self-enumeration will be available for a period of 15 days prior to the commencement of house-to-house houselisting, as per the schedule notified by each State/UT,” notification by RG&CCI read. 

Earlier in July 2025, RG&CCI stated that administrative boundaries across India would be frozen on 1st January 2026. It requested States & Uts not to make changes in administrative boundaries between 1st January, 2026, to 31st March, 2027.

“Census 2027 will be conducted in two phases. Phase 1, i.e., Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO), will start from April 2026. Subsequently, Phase 2 i.e., Population Enumeration (PE), will be conducted,” RG&CCI said in July 2025. 

Caste enumeration:

Caste of household members will be enumerated in the upcoming Census, and this is the first time the enumeration of caste will take place in Independent India. According to a report by The Hindu, caste identities will be enumerated during the second phase, which is during the population enumeration (PE) phase scheduled to be conducted in February 2027. 

First Digital Census:

Census 2027 will also be the first Digital Census in the country.

RG&CCI said in July 2025  that the Digital Census initiative is a "transformational step towards modernising the Census process. For the first time, technology will be used to collect data and send it electronically to the central server. This will result in early availability of Census data.”  

Self-enumeration, which will be done through a dedicated web portal, will be available for both phases of the Census. 

Around 34 lakh functionaries, including Enumerators and Supervisors, will be deployed for data collection and to carry out census-related operations. 

The upcoming census is the 16th Census since the start of the Census process in the country & 8th after independence.

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